This invention relates to land-use display models for community planning and particularly to three-dimensional models. Federal, state and local governments are interested in orderly development of undeveloped communities. Activities necessary to create comprehensive community development plans and to develop a policy-planning management capacity within communities are encouraged by federal and state agencies. Early determination of community needs, long-term goals and short-term objectives, and establishment of effective programs to meet these objectives and goals are deemed to be necessary steps if economic and human resources are to be effectively applied and served.
Three-dimensional scale models of entire communities or segments thereof have considerable value in land-use and community planning both for visualizing present and prospective conditions of land usage and for communicating objectives for furture usage to decision-making authority and to the public. However, presently available three-dimensional models representing extended areas, when prepared to a scale having more than ornamental utility, are large, cumbersome and costly as well as inconvenient to produce, repair and update. Installation and relocation costs are high also.
What is needed for community development and land-use planning is a model which has a low original investment cost and is easily and economically repaired, updated, revised, expanded and contracted. It should be easily installed and relocated and adaptable for promotional efforts related to localized projects within the larger community as well as for overall planning. Desirable features are that the model be fabricated to utilitarian vertical and horizontal scales showing topographical elevations of the land surface, waterways, foliage as well as man-made features such as residences, industrial, commercial and public buildings, roads, utility installations and bus routes. It should preferably be joinable to models of similar scale of adjacent communities and land tracts without overlap or irregular gaps. It should be displayable in a horizontal or vertical plane and at intermediate sloping angles.